Despite for going on for a decade, does the overtly
militaristic theme of the 2014 China Air Show casts doubts on its economic
viability?
By: Ringo Bones
Officially known as the 10th China International Aviation
& Aerospace Exhibition for Railway, Shipping & Aviation which took
place back in November 11 to 16, 2014 in Guangdong, The People's Republic of China, has been criticized by pundits –
especially from the Jane’s Defense Weekly – as not economically viable in
comparison to similar shows – i.e. the Farnborough Air Show back in July 2014
and the African Aerospace and Defence show back in September 2014 because the
2014 China Air Show consists mostly of military sales, as in 95-percent of the
sales in fact. By way of comparison, the 2014 Farnborough Air Show and the 2014
African Air Show is a 90-percent commercial endeavor and 10-percent military
and defense sales.
The criticism of the 2014 China Air Show not only centers on
the show’s over reliance on the military and defense aspects of the aerospace
industry, which has been in global decline since 9/11 due to the fact that
multi-million dollar fighter planes are not very effective in tackling
extremist terror groups but also on the fact that most of their
public-relations exhibits used to wow civilian attendees are mostly according
to Jane’s Defense Weekly pundits as “Soviet-era museum showcases that dates
back from the 1960s”. Even though the 2014 Farnborough Air Show was
overshadowed by the tragic shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, most
of the “scant” coverage I’ve heard so far of the 2014 China Air Show has been
largely negative. Given that the official name of the air show purportedly
states its coverage on nautical as well as aviation matters, there has never
been any mention of updated versions of the ekranoplan aimed at the civilian
inter-island travel market.
The 2014 China Air Show having questionable "economic viability" due to the fact that it is 90-percent composed of military and defense rather than The People's Republic of China wooing the civilian arm of Boeing and Airbus to set up shops in Mainland China jibes with the recent views of Reuben F. Johnson - correspondent for IHS Jane's Defence Weekly - a publication devoted to defense and security intelligence analysis.
ReplyDeleteRemember that PBS documentary that originally aired back in 1989 titled "In Sickness And In Stealth" about the U.S. Department of Defense coming clean on the occupational health risks involved in the manufacture of their F-117 Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit stealth aircraft? I wonder how many Mainland Chinese workers died during the manufacture of Mainland China's latest showcased stealth aircraft?
ReplyDelete